| Gagarin: First in Space | Pavel Parkhomenko | Russia |
| Kid Cannabis | John Stockwell | United States |
| Monuments Men | George Clooney | Germany, United States |
| Dallas Buyers Club | Jean-Marc Vallée | United States |
| Philomena | Stephen Frears | France, United Kingdom, United States |
| The Fifth Estate | Bill Condon | United States, India |
| Captain Phillips | Paul Greengrass | United States |
| Rush | Ron Howard | United Kingdom, Germany, United States |
| The Look of Love | Michael Winterbottom | United Kingdom, United States |
| Marina | Stijn Coninx | Belgium, Netherlands |
| The Dance of Reality | Alejandro Jodorowsky | France, Chile |
| 42 | Brian Helgeland | United States |
| 3096 Days | Sherry Hormann | Germany |
| Chasing Mavericks | Curtis Hanson, Michael Apted | United States |
| Lincoln | Steven Spielberg | United States |
| You Are God | Leszek Dawid | Poland |
| Soul Surfer | Sean McNamara | United States |
| Heleno | José Henrique Fonseca | Brazil |
| Secretariat | Randall Wallace | United States |
| Snowtown | Justin Kurzel | Australia |
| Eat Pray Love | Ryan Murphy | United States |
| Agora | Alejandro Amenábar | Spain |
| Bright Star | Jane Campion | France, United Kingdom, United States, Australia |
| The Admiral | Andrei Kravchuk | France, People's Republic of China, Russia |
| Coco Before Chanel | Anne Fontaine | France, Belgium |
| The Countess | Julie Delpy | France, Germany |
| Cadillac Records | Darnell Martin | United States |
| Max Manus: Man of War | Joachim Rønning, Espen Sandberg | Norway |
| Little Ashes | Paul Morrison | United Kingdom, Spain |
| Factory Girl | George Hickenlooper | United States |
| Savage Grace | Tom Kalin | France, Spain, United States |
| The Other Boleyn Girl | Justin Chadwick | United Kingdom, United States |
| American Gangster | Ridley Scott | United States |
| Elizabeth: The Golden Age | Shekhar Kapur | United Kingdom |
| Salvador | Manuel Huerga | United Kingdom, Spain |
| Resurrecting the Champ | Rod Lurie | United States |
| Persepolis | Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud | France |
| The Pursuit of Happyness | Gabriele Muccino | United States |
| Miss Potter | Chris Noonan | United Kingdom, United States |
| A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints | Dito Montiel | United States |
| Catch a Fire | Phillip Noyce | France, United Kingdom, South Africa, United States |
| Klimt | Raúl Ruiz | France, United Kingdom, Germany, Austria |
| Marie Antoinette | Sofia Coppola | France, Japan, United States |
| Fearless | Ronny Yu | People's Republic of China, Hong Kong |
| Valo | Kaija Juurikkala | Finland |
| American Splendor | Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini | United States |
| Zhang Side | Yin Li | People's Republic of China |
| Miracle | Gavin O'Connor | United States |